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He has been chronicling his journey, often with amazing positivity and humor, sometimes understandably discouraged, often thoughtful. He stopped by our place last summer while traveling through. He was feeling good at the time, on a break between treatments, and looked great. It was great to have a short visit, longer would have been nice. I don't think he ever sits still for long if he has anything to say about it.

All of us as human beings offend, there is no exception. Only Jesus loves and only Jesus is the source of the Spirit of forgiveness. And by a miracle of mercy and kindness, Jesus may love, and forgive through us. Somewhere i read that "it is the glory of man to forgive the offenses of another." The glory of God is His very character... and it is in the Character of God to give and forgive. What a good and merciful, saving Lord we have. There is nothing special about us, except who our God is. thanks Gayatfoorofcross, for taking the step to put your thoughts out there.

There is a sub group in Seventh-day Adventism who call themselves "Historic Adventists". I tend to have a number of concerns and criticisms about them. However I tend to see them as a valid voice with in the Adventist community. (I big concern is that they like to think they are the only true voice and want the rest of us to shape up and join them. I see them as preaching part of the truth and tending to use it against the rest of the truth and building traditions on this.) However, traditionally they have held to our Methodist/Wesleyan foundation. They have been vigorous defenders of this tradition against encroachments of Calvinism. Sadly, in their opposition to women's ordination, they have latched themselves on to the "Headship" theology which is very anti-Methodist and very Calvinistic. I fear as to what this compromise with their traditional foundation will do to them.

What a great picture of two of my favorite people!!!

I am personally of the opinion that the church should get out of the wedding business. Today it really is a civil contract. I think all couple wanting to get married should just go to the justice of the piece (with their lawyers as needed!) and do the civil contract. When they have their license, present it to the pastor and have a dedication like baby dedications where the ceremony is completely religious and with no government involvement. It would be more of a religious blessing on the union. Then see how the whole debate turns out. But then, marriage would have been quite thoroughly destroyed in the social sense which was the goal anyway! It might result in even more blessings on this union of gay couples as people rationalize that they really haven't done a gay wedding! Oh! The confusion of this present generation!

​I certainly hope it won't have monetary influence in the minds of the voters. Sadly, history shows that the blending of money and politics makes bad sewage results. As for new members in other Divisions, the missionary adage of "rice christians" probably still holds true for many. They are seeking personal advantage materially, perhaps, when joining. I don't know....Our God knows only.

There are various cases of where Pastors have been involved crimes against children, maybe following the same logic, all pastors should be filmed when sighted in the company of children also?

"​God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. " No need to believe. Or change. Would you want to live next to an unrepentant Adolf Hitler in Heaven? And to his ilk, being forced to not do evil would be making them automatons.

ESV　|　Ro 2:13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them This gives me the idea that there will be Gentiles BC & AD who will be in the new earth.

​That's good, Laz. We need to expose the wrong, whether on the part of the police making the arrest or the part of the suspect. BTW, I just saw the pictures of the six policemen who were indicted on the death of Freddie Gray. Three look black and the other three look white.

O.K. I will respond to one aspect of the post above: As I understand it, the statement was made that it is an oxymoron to say that one can be a gay-Christian. Let me ask a question: I have a sister who is an alcoholic. Due to therapy and other things, to include prayer and God, she has not had a drink in more than 10 years. But, she is an alcoholic. Would you say that it would be an oxymoron to call her a Christian? She may or may not be. But, based upon that one issue would you say that it is an oxymoron to call her a Christian. In a previous time I my life, I worked extensively with HIV infected people. The majority were adult male homosexuals. However some were children, some were female and some were not homosexual. Some were either members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church or stated that the SDA Church was their church of preference. Of those HIV infected people, a few who acknowledged that they were homosexual were celibate. Would you say that it would be an oxymoron to call a celibate homosexual a Christian? What about a homosexual who had failed in an attempt to be celibate? If you would not call those people, it appears to me that you have equated being a Christian with the achievement of a certain standard of lifestyle. Many would suggest that one is a Christian at the moment of making a commitment to follow Christ, rather than achieving a specific level of perfection. Many would suggest that a victory over every sin is a gift of the Holy Spirit, rather than a personal achievement of victory. Brotherly Love, I do not know you. However, I suspect that somewhere in your life you have some sin that you have not yet obtained victory over. In fact, you may not at this time re cognize it as sin. You may not be struggling with it. If this is so, that is the responsibility of the Holy Spirit. It is not my responsibility to point it out and to tell you that it would be an oxymoron to call you a Christian. IT may be that you have not yet obtained victory over that sin because God has not yet given you victory. Or, it may be that you have not yet obtained victory because you do not want such. But, that is for God to determine. Only God knows. I do not. The same would apply to you if you were to say that it is an oxymoron to call someone a Christian just because they are gay.

I didn't imply that you didn't say thank you. I've implied that the spirit of distrust that leads you to suspect that any and every police confrontation should be videotaped due to potential of abuse ... doesn't reflect such spirit. It's like bugging your wife every time she's out of the door because there are some women out there who cheat. Somehow I think that may not be the case ??? I think that's a rather broad statement to make, and I think it's actually a result of misunderstanding what a job of a cop is. It's not there to make judgement about guilt or innocence of any given person. They are their to enforce the law and prevent potential crime. With that in mind you'll have a lot of mix up situations in which apprehended suspects will not be guilty, but the issue is that the continuum of force (look it up) that guides engagement behavior still applies. The reason for the "lack of accountability" is because of the general public misunderstanding of the "continuum of force" guidelines that are used to apprehend suspects and bring them in for any given decision. They are limited in the judgement decisions they get to do about someone's guilt or involvement, and it's not really something you can easily sort out in the streets most of the time. For example... If someone told Eric Garner about use of force continuum protocol... it's possible that the guy could still be alive. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_force_continuum Police followed the protocol to the dot. They verbally attempted to de-escalate situation. The guy was till acting aggressively, and refused to comply with verbal cooperation, which lead to empty hand submission technique which resulted in his unfortunate death in the process. Had he complied, he'd still be alive. THE POINT IS: It's stupid and silly to attempt convince the police about your innocence. It's not their job to judge that. http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/08/19/im-a-cop-if-you-dont-want-to-get-hurt-dont-challenge-me/ I'm not here to say that any given black person are more predisposed to the life of crime than a white or Hispanic. The issue is with disproportional representation of "black and Hispanic crime" compared to "white crime". http://www.amren.com/archives/reports/the-color-of-crime/ The racial make up of the crime wouldn't be an issue had it not been immensely disproportional. Again, I'm not going to sit here and make up stories about "Black people are just more criminal and terrible". There's a history of structurally-imposed poverty that was carried out through racial discrimination in this country's past. This history created disproportionate rates of cyclical poverty when we compare black and white rate of poverty, crime, education and etc. I deeply empathize with historical context of this situation. But to call it a "cop accountability issue" is a load of bunk. There's a real problem with violence in poor black neighborhoods. It's not something that news makes up. I don't think that we can deal with the issue by pretending that it doesn't exists. It's a real issue and statistics reflects it. I grew up in Northwest Miami, so I know very well which parts of the town is perceived safer. It ain't Northwest for sure http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/table-43 Cops assigned to patrol these neighborhood will naturally face higher rate of reports an incidents then when they are patrolling racially mixed or white neighborhood. It's a statistical fact... again I'm not making it up because I want to hate black people. Digging your head in the sand and blaming cops for it won't solve any of these problems. I can certainly appreciate your efforts in that area. It may make police more careful, but the continuum of force is there to stay as a guideline that these cops are judged by. Body cameras will not prevent cops putting a guy who is resisting arrest and is non-compliant into a violent submission. It will actually give them more documented reasons to demonstrate that they are following the protocol to the dot. In short... there needs to be a great deal of education going on on how to properly behave around cops. Besides being an employer and a father... I get involved through sports, which I see as my mission field. It helped me in life, and I see it as a great way to cultivate discipline, character and work ethic in young people. I played some professionally oversees, and in college level here. That has been predominantly my outlet for community service. I also make a point to make sure that young people know how to properly deal with police.

Some good points brought up by Ray Hartwell: "Strange Fire" is accepted at face value as fact, by many conscientious individuals. but there are many questions that beg to be answered, which the authors do not address at all. In this concluding section, we will look at what a historic Adventist should ask and should be able to receive an answer. Part 11. Some of the exact same arguments used today to claim that women should not serve in the gospel ministry in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, were used by critics of Ellen White and the Adventist Church in the day of Ellen White. Why do the authors ignore these criticisms and the answers our early Adventist pioneers gave to answer the charge that God could not use a women as a prophet or a spiritual leader? What do they do with J.N. Andrews (Who Ellen White called our ablest man, and who was our first foreign missionary, and who had committed to entire New Testament to memory) when he answers these critics who had cited 1 Timothy 2:12 that women were not to teach? “This her colleagues consistently refuted, not by pleading that she as a prophet constituted a special category, but by arguing that the verse was wrongly applied to prohibiting women ministers in general (cf. Lt 17a, 1880, in 10 MR 70). J.N. Andrews cited Paul’s female coworkers (Philippians 4:3), Phoebe the deaconess (Romans 16:1), Priscilla’s role in ‘instructing Apollos’ and the leadership roles of other New Testament women to prove that Paul’s ‘general rule with regard to women as public teachers’ did not constitute a rigid or universal prohibition. Andrews argued that Romans 10:10 requires public confession of the faith as integral to salvation, and therefore ‘must apply to women equally with men’ (J.N. Andrews, “May Women Speak in Meeting?” Review and Herald, January 2, 1879) – quoted from The Ellen White Encyclopedia, page 1279, Review and Herald Publishing Association, copyrighted 2013. Other historical examples: 1857: D. Hewitt states that the force of Joel 2 supports women’s public ministry. Review and Herald, Oct. 15, 1857, p. 190. 1858: James White challenges Review and Herald readers. Urges that Joel 2 be viewed inclusively, noting that men and man in Scripture "generally means both male and female." Review and Herald, Jan. 7, 1858, p. 69. 1859: B. F. Robbins decries rules in any church that invoke 1 Cor. 14 and 1 Tim. 2 to silence women. Review and Herald, Dec. 8, 1859, pp. 21, 22. 1860: S. C. Welcome supported women’s equality, claiming the "authority of divine revelation that male and female are one in Christ Jesus." Review and Herald, Oct. 15, 1860, pp. 109, 110. 1861: J. A. Mowatt declared it "a woman’s right" to participate publicly in worship. Review and Herald, July 30, 1861, p. 65. 1861: Editor Uriah Smith supports women’s public ministry. He quoted with approval a long extract from the Portadown News, "Women as Preachers and Lecturers." Review and Herald, July 30, 1861. 1868: M. W. Howard said Bible women (like Priscilla) were viable role models for modem women. Review and Herald, Aug 18, 1868, p. 133. If today you are not in favor of women in the gospel ministry (it's not their role, only males could be priests, etc.), then can you even call yourself a historic Adventist, standing in agreement with the founders and pioneers of the church? If you have "moved away" from the founding pioneers of the church, then are you not indeed, yourself, proclaiming some kind of "New Theology?"

Yes, NeilD

Is that NeilD? God is Love! Jesus saves!

Gail, please tell Neil I'm praying for him. I don't "do" Facebook, so I hadn't heard about his illness. Liver cancer is a terrible thing. Hopefully the doctors will be able to treat it so as to give him back his health. Don't despair, Neil. God is with you. We all are facing Christ's return, when all sickness will be abolished forever. It won't be long now.